Need some advice and I may as well use this place. Know lots of medical stuff and very little real life stuff.

I've seen a couple of houses. Do I just ring up the estate agents and ask for a viewing? Do I need to have a mortgage in principle before viewing or putting in offers?

In summary here's the process:

1) I would find out how much mortgage you can get then you know your price range. Also find a solicitor. It costs about £500 to buy a house.

2) Call Estate Agent to arrange a viewing

3) If you really like the house don't let estate agent see it when you're viewing lol. Say you'll think about it

4) Go for a second viewing if you're really interested with someone else for a second opinion

5) Make an offer to the Estate Agent if you want it. Always start with a low offer and barter

6) Wait with baited breath for reply

7) If they accept get solicitor involved to do land searches etc and get a survey done. Structural is usually what I get but some people get the full survey.

8) If everything OK solicitor exchanges contracts then 6 weeks later you complete and move in

How much of an offer should I put in? One house I've seen states "offers in region of £260,000" and the other "offers over £240k". Should I go under by £5k? £10k?

re: viewing - was planning on going by myself first time, and then with partner and parents second time.

Depends on the price of the proerty but I think on a 260k house offer as low as 245/240k. Also depends how long it's been on the market. If it has been on for a while they will be more open to lower offers. Also check out http://www.zoopla.co.uk/ for prices paid in the area.

Watch lots of Location Location Location to get tips!

I'd go to several estate agents and get them to print out all the details they have for all the houses that meet your criteria (price, location, # bedrooms etc).
Also look on Rightmove.

I'd sort out with the banks how much they're prepared to lend you first. No point in making offers if you can't afford them.

There's a step before #1.
Save up a big pile of money.

I've been quoted more than that on just the solicitors fees! Are you missing a 0 there?

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortga ... -borrowing
That's not a bad place to get an idea of how much you can borrow, the higher deposit % the better rates you can get (or longer term locked rates)

Details of costs:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortga ... ying-guide

In a similar position ourselves, got approached by our neighbour about buying their place (we're renting) and in a position that we could afford to buy the right place, they need a quick sale for their 'chain' and it's less than we'd be happy to pay

Zoopla is a good place to look at historical data for the area, rightmove doesn't seem to include rentals as well as purchases

Oh, view the house in the day and at night (even if it's just walking past the street), some stuff can be a killer at the wrong time of day (one place was next to a road used by lorries but we only saw it in the evening when it was quiet so could have missed it otherwise)

Deposit saved - circa £30k at the mo. The other half is thinking about adding to that.

We're selling our house at the moment, and paying £580 for the solicitors fees for selling. We had a price a little while back for purchase fees when we were still looking at property in the UK and that was just under a grand.

Just be grateful you're not buying in France; Notaire's fees are 7.5% of the value of the property!

When we bought, we offered 30K less than the seller wanted, we agreed on 20K less. We could argue that a lot of work needed doing (we invested around 50K in renovations). The heating was also old, so we could knock a bit more and so on.

Important is the survey.

Use as stated Zoopa and also rightmove for similar properties in the same area

remember that at £250K the stamp duty increases

Rates:
£0 - £125,000 0%
£125,001 - £250,000 1%
£250,001 - £500,000 3%

and thats on the total price - so if you buy the house for 250K then you pay £2500 stamp duty to the goverment but if you pay £250,001 then its £7500 so I would not pay anything over £250K

Do a second viewing with a mate who has no interest in the haouse and get them to be critcla - you are looking for all the flaws that you can to knock the price down

If its a new house then a basic valuation survey is OK. If its older then I would go for a full structural survey

Well I've found a flat I really like but it's already had offers. Going to go and see it asap. I may have the advantage of being a cash buyer with nothing to sell. I daren't get excited!

New/recent builds appear to be more expensive and smaller than older housing. Certainly my parents' house is a 3 bed terraced but I have the smallest room and it's comparable to the master bedroom in more modern 3-bed semis where the third bedroom is basically a box room.

I have a viewing on Sunday

I'm not sure why you think older housing is smaller?